Patriarch Kirill's team had apparently Photoshopped the Breguet watch out a photo from an official event, apparently hoping to stem any criticism about why a religious leader would be wearing such an expensive watch. Of course their plan backfired and the story spread from blogs to international press in a matter of days.

Have Russian officials learned?

Apparently not. The New York Times' Lede Blog as a great summary of the case of ethnic republic Udmurtia's president, Alexander Volkov, who appeared on a billboard and cuddling a tiger and wearing some kind of watch.

Russian bloggers were soon able to reveal that the plain watch on the poster had in fact been stuck on top of the previous, more glamorous watch.